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Comment by skilled | Hacker News Reader

As far as Inksccape goes, the MacOS experience is one of the worst I have ever had to deal with. Luckily, I only use it to extract individual photos from EPS/PDF files.

Unfortunately, all the good editing apps like Sketch and Affinity Designer cost a fortune when you factor in the actual use case. Figma is alright, but the desktop app feels like I am working with a piece of origami.

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Exactly. Does anyone know what are the difficulties to provide a pleasant experience for Inkscape on Mac? Gimp looks decent. With Inkscape I wouldn't need anything else, really. Both are amazing.

> Does anyone know what are the difficulties to provide a pleasant experience for Inkscape on Mac

GIMP doesn't use the XQuartz X11 compatibility layer that Inkscape uses. Work is ongoing according to the Inkscape GitLab [1].

[1] https://gitlab.com/inkscape/inkscape/issues/84

GIMP and Inkscape are very different. GIMP has nearly no vector graphics editing support, although you can open svg files with it. Inkscape on the other hand is a vector graphics editor.

Looks like that's why Inkscape is needed in macOS! :-)

don't loose sleep over inkscape

Just buy affinity designer.

You're right. I have been able to get away with Keynote/Figma for the longest time but might be the time to get something sturdier.

I recently discovered keynote for illustration and animation. I will still use it in certain scenarios, esp if animation is involved. It’s amazingly capable.

Yes, it is! Some of the most creative infographics I have done have been with Keynote.

Keynote just needs some rudimentary keyframe animation capability and it will be set!

Because if not keyframe, it would be something like After Effects for graphics based animation.

Boxy SVG [1] has a user interface which is heavly influenced by Inkscape. The Linux version was released just few days ago and it is currently available for free on the Snap Store [2]. The macOS, Windows and Chrome OS versions cost only 9 USD (one time payment).

[1] https://boxy-svg.com

[2] https://snapcraft.io/boxy-svg

Unfortunately it's an Electron app.

>Unfortunately, all the good editing apps like Sketch and Affinity Designer cost a fortune when you factor in the actual use case.

affinity designer is $30, one time purchase.

How is that a fortune? Compared to Adobe Illustrator it's essentially free.

Compared to Inkscape, the productivity gains are priceless.

I am sure it was $50. Nevertheless, you are right. I am being stingy and favoring costs over productivity gains.

Ahh yes $50 normal price. They’ve had several 20% off sales in the past 6 mos.

Still $50 is a bargain for a professional level vector illustration app.

I used up the trial earlier in the year, and it definitely has a nice workflow. And by the looks of it, it's also capable of industry-grade editing.

The MacOS version simply doesn't work. The UI is mangled and it crashes if you do so much as look at it.

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